This is a picture of my mom. She’s about three. While she was napping one day, my Grandma decorated the Christmas tree. My mom woke up and discovered the tree aglow. Someone got this snapshot, which is impressive because everyone wasn’t running around with a camera on their phone.

You can see the awe, wonder, and joy that Christmas can bring on her little face. It’s not only Christmas. We can feel wonder at other times and in other places. Usually for me nature inspires those feelings more than anything else.

I pick the places I travel and the activities I do to find a little bit of that astonishment. When you’re 8,000-feet on a snow-covered mountain at night and you look up at the stars, your jaw drops in amazement. I regularly seek the sense of wonder, awe and joy my mom is living in that photograph. It can be harder to find during the daily grind and on a day-to-day basis, but it’s there.